Editing Franz Kafka (section)

===Siblings===
[[File:Kafka-sisters.jpg|thumb|Franz Kafka's sisters as children, from the left [[Valli Kafka|Valli]], Elli, [[Ottla Kafka|Ottla]]]]

Kafka's parents had six children; Franz was the eldest.{{sfn|Hamalian|1974|p=3}} His two brothers, Georg and Heinrich, died in infancy; his three sisters, Gabriele ("Elli") (September 22, 1889 – fall of 1942), [[Valli Kafka|Valerie]] ("Valli") (1890–1942) and [[Ottla Kafka|Ottilie]] ("Ottla") (1892–1943), are believed to have been murdered in [[the Holocaust]] of the [[Second World War]]. Ottilie was Kafka's favourite sister.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Metamorphosis|last=Kafka|first=Franz|publisher=Simon and Schuster Paperbacks|year=2009|isbn=978-1-4165-9968-5|location=New York|page=ix|ref=none}}</ref>

Gabriele was Kafka's eldest sister. She was known as Elli or Ellie; her married name is variously rendered as Hermann or Hermannová. She attended a German girls' school in Prague's Řeznická Street and later a private girls' secondary school.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Elli Kafka |url=https://www.franzkafka.de/leben/familie/gabrielekafka |access-date=4 April 2024 |website=Franz Kafka}}</ref> She married Karl Hermann (1883–1939), a salesman, in 1910. The couple had a son, Felix (1911–1940), and two daughters, Gertrude (Gerti) Kaufmann (1912–1972), and Hanna Seidner (1920–1941).<ref name=":0" /><ref name="kafkamuseum">{{cite web|url=https://kafkamuseum.cz/en/franz-kafka/family/sisters/|title=Sisters – Franz Kafka|website=kafkamuseum.cz|access-date=4 April 2024}}</ref> After her marriage to Hermann, she became closer to her brother, whose letters showed an active interest in the upbringing and education of her children. He accompanied her on a 1915 trip to Hungary to visit Hermann, who was stationed there, and spent a summer with her and her children in [[Graal-Müritz|Müritz]] the year before he died.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Zur Erinnerung an Gabriele Kafka |url=https://gabriele-kafka.zurerinnerung.at/ |access-date=5 April 2024 |website=gabriele-kafka.zurerinnerung.at |language=de}}</ref>

With the outbreak of the [[Great Depression]] in 1929, the Hermann family business experienced financial difficulties and eventually went bankrupt.<ref name=":0" /> Karl Hermann died February 27, 1939, and Elli was supported financially by her sisters.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> On October 21, 1941, she was deported together with her daughter Hanna to the [[Łódź Ghetto]], where she lived temporarily with her sister Valli and Valli's husband in the spring of 1942. She was probably killed in the [[Kulmhof extermination camp]] in the fall of 1942.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Valli Kafka |url=https://www.franzkafka.de/leben/familie/valeriekafka |access-date=5 April 2024 |website=Franz Kafka |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Ottla Kafka |url=https://www.franzkafka.de/leben/familie/ottiliekafka |access-date=5 April 2024 |website=Franz Kafka |language=de}}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Kafkas Schwestern |url=https://www.juedisches-museum-muenchen.de/ausstellungen/kafkas-schwestern |access-date=5 April 2024 |publisher=[[Jewish Museum Munich]]|language=de}}</ref> Of Elli's three children, only her daughter Gerti survived the Second World War.{{Cn|date=April 2024}} A memorial plaque commemorates the three sisters at the family grave in the [[New Jewish Cemetery, Prague|New Jewish Cemetery]] in Prague.<ref name=":1" />